Quilts!

Happy Sunday! I'm back with photos of the finished quilts which Dan and I took yesterday. I feel so much happier to have a quilt photography plan. Hoping to employ him for further quilty photo-shoots in future too. 

Centre City Color Hex. Ok... I finished this quilt ages ago, but have never been able to photograph it properly. The colours in this fabric line (Jay McCarroll's Centre City) are so lovely and saturated, but my camera really struggled to balance the deep purples and almost neon brights. But finally I am happy to share it in all its glory. I used In Color Order's Color Hex pattern, and it came together beautifully. The background grey is Kona Coal.

The quilt back is Moda Bella Solid in Eggplant, with a little strip of scraps from the quilt front. I quilted in straight lines using dark grey thread. Binding is a black cotton solid.

The second quilt finish I want to share is another Jeni B inspired baby quilt. My Salt Water Star is based on the Giant Vintage Star tutorial, with my HSTs and corner blocks finishing at 9" square and a 2" border added all around to make the star float. I used the green and blue colorways of Tula Pink's Salt Water line with a bright white solid for the quilt front.

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Quilt back is a mixture of leftover solids in white and natural, with lots of Salt Water scraps in a stripey layout. The binding is a Bonnie and Camille Marmalade stripe in beige and white.

I quilted the Salt Water Star in happy free-motion loops using white thread.

Both of these little quilts are available now in my etsy store!
Centre City Color Hex Quilt here and Salt Water Star Quilt here.

Early On Saturday Morning

I love early weekend mornings. I mostly get up first, feed the cat and drink my coffee in peace. Mostly I let Dan sleep in as he's not quite as much of a morning person as me. But today he was sweet enough to come to the river before 8am to help photograph quilts. Awesome :)

 It was pretty cold and drizzly for a Midsummer morning. We spotted a duck pile on the weir. Apparently ducks are not morning people either.

After the quilty photos we went home for bacon sandwiches (with peanut butter and ketchup for me) and hot coffee. The two quilts we took out this morning will be hitting the shop soon, and I'll talk about them here shortly. I have two more baby-sized quilt tops waiting for my quilting attentions this week. Madrona Road Houses, based on this pattern.

And a simple squares patchwork top I'm calling Midsummer Moonlight.

I'm excited to get these two quilted and finished. My machine has been acting up a bit this week though so I'm not 100% sure my free-motion quilting will work out, but I'm hoping it will!

Hey there!

I'm still here :) Just not been online much lately. My computer reacted badly to a Ubuntu upgrade and I lost the ability to connect to the WiFi. I like to use my laptop upstairs where there is no wired internet, so that was a bit of a deal-breaker for me. Luckily, it is all better now :) Almost. It might be on it's last legs at this point but I really don't want to admit it.

Also, we have been experiencing that thing called the Irish Summer. It strikes hard and fast, with ridiculous heat and beautiful long sunny days. I spent as many of them as possible outdoors and don't think I turned my oven on all week, Salad dinners are the future. Dan and I went to Dublin on Saturday where we enjoyed the perfect lunch at The Counter. I mostly went to Dublin for an interfacing re-stock. but they didn't have my preferred fusible woven type. I did buy some fusible canvas though. Hopefully I'll get time to play with it soon.

I hope to catch up on flickr-ing and such shortly. I am making progress with my Fat Quarterly Retreat projects. Just waiting for an interfacing restock (from the internet this time). Today I went for a doctor check up and left with a bit less blood than I went in with, so hoping someone will make me a delicious dinner soon so I can get my strength back for more stitching.

Weekend Sewing

Popping in quickly to share a bit of what I have been working on this week. Photos are not the best, but better than none at all, I hope. I am seriously trying to gain control of my sewing plans for the Fat Quarterly Retreat, and I am *almost* back on my schedule. I finished my Aeroplane Bag on Friday :) I made the regular size. For the top portion I used a patchwork panel, quilted with cotton batting and a layer of calico, then trimmed to fit the pattern. The bag base and handles are Carolina Chambray. I lined  my bag with the super-bright yellow-green heatwave stripe from Chicopee.

Everything came together really quickly. The most challenging part was setting the zip and then sewing the rest of the side seams. I used a 22" metal zip so I couldn't follow the pattern as written and had to improvise. I sewed the last 1/2" of all the seams meeting the zip by hand, but not before trying (and failing) to do it by machine. Just sewing them by hand in the first place would have been a much better idea. Anyway, I love my new bag and hope to take it on an adventure very soon.

Yesterday I quilted this little quilt top. It is a commission quilt for a new baby, in summery cherry colours.

I quilted it in rows of happy loops in white aurifil 50wt. This is a peek at the back, which is mostly kona snow with a patchwork strip. I hope to get the binding added today and hopefully have some finished photos soon.

Still to do...
~ Finish Sample Swap items. In progress, nearly there!
~ Name tag for my partner. Can't quite settle on a plan for this one, but will get sewing soon.